Thanks to the person who brought my attention to this piece from the SBP at the weekend. In it Killian Woods noted that:

An ESRI report that said the state could prudently borrow billions for social housing was described as "not helpful" and branded as "detached from reality" by senior civil servants in the Department of Finance, the Business Post can reveal.

In June, a paper published by Kieran McQuinn, a research professor at the ESRI, recommended that the state had the capacity to "prudently" borrow up to €7 billion a year to provide extra funding to build thousands of additional social homes.

And:

 

Records released under freedom of information to Thomas Gould, the Sinn Féin TD, have revealed that John McCarthy, the chief economist in the Department of Finance, was given an advanced copy of the ESRI report and when the findings were explained to McCarthy by a colleague, he replied: "FFS".

The records, seen by the Business Post, have also shown that senior staff in the Department of Finance conducted a large-scale effort to debunk the ESRI report before it was even released.

All this on foot of an ESRI, yes that nest of radical reds (clearly not), quarterly economic commentary drafted by McQuinn and which was just about to be released.

McQuinn is no neophyte:

The report was titled 'Prudent government borrowing can mitigate inadequate housing supply and upward pressure on prices and rent'. In summary, McQuinn concluded that the state had the capacity to "prudently" borrow up to €7 billion a year to provide extra funding for a significant increase in social housing construction.

McQuinn, who has a PhD in economics, has vast experience researching housing-related issues. He worked for more than 11 years in the Central Bank and he is currently adjunct professor of economics at University College Cork and Trinity College Dublin.

But perhaps there was a deeper problem...

His report was a significant piece of research for one reason in particular: it essentially backed Sinn Féin's housing policy. Accordingly, it was extensively covered in the media and made the front page of several national newspapers.

Since its release, the report has also been repeatedly raised in the Dáil by members of the opposition, who questioned the government on why it has not heeded the advice of the ESRI.

The manner in which the report was received in Finance is detailed by Woods:

At 9.58am on June 2, McCarthy, who hadn't read the report, forwarded it onto Matthew McGann, another senior civil servant in the Department of Finance's economics unit.

"Jaysus, that's not helpful," McGann replied at 10.38am. The response prompted McCarthy to treat the ESRI report more seriously.

Two minutes later, McCarthy replied, "Haven't read – what does it say?"

"Well, I've only read the abstract, but basically negative r-g means the state has the capacity to borrow up to an additional €7bn a year to build public houses," McGann wrote at 10:41am.

"FFS," McCarthy replied at 10.52am.

At that point it was decided it was necessary to urgently rebut the report. There's a drinking game in the terms used to do so. 'detached from reality', 'gross simplification', 'significant non fiscal constraints', 'we do not have the capacity', 'throwing an additional €4-€7 billion per annum at the problem is not appropriate" and this gem "It is only a decade since we discovered (apparently only officials in the Dept. of Finance knew) that the world does not owe us a living."

There was also reference to: "the reality is that there is no magic money tree" and "We need to manage our own affairs; borrowing from the rest of the world and throwing money at a problem can only end in one way."

There's been some controversy over this since. Tellingly 'The Department of Finance did not respond to a request for comment in relation to the records released.'

But in truth some service has been done by revealing just how averse this part of the state is to any hint of radicalism even from the ESRI.